[NCLUG] Encrypted Filesystems?

[Chad Perrin]

On Sun, Apr 15, 2007 at 06:02:37PM -0600, Bob Proulx wrote:
> Chad Perrin wrote:
> > Have you considered creating a /mnt/encrypted (or wherever you want it)
> > filesystem, then creating a symlink to it in your home directory for
> > easy and effectively transparent access?
> 
> Yes.  I had a gramatical typo though and said "link of of it" instead
> of "link out of it" and so made no sense.  But that is what I was
> thinking.  Although lately I have gotten to like 'bind' mounts because
> then they don't look like a symlink and depending upon the software
> having 'pwd' look like it really is there is often advantageous.

So . . . is there a problem with just mounting the encrypted filesystem
directly, wherever you'll use it, rather than symlinking it?  For
instance, if you'd consider mounting at /mnt/encrypted and symlinking to
it from /home/username/encrypted, you could just mount it directly at
/home/username/encrypted instead.  I don't recall you mentioning any
options along those lines.


> 
> > Do you have a reliable means of recovering your data if something goes
> > wrong with your encrypted filesystem?  Since you're talking about using
> > an encrypted filesystem on a laptop in case of theft, I tend to assume
> > you don't feel a need to encrypt the same data at home.
> 
> Right.  I back the data up to a raid fileserver at home.  Although
> mostly I simply check in the files that I am concerned about and would
> normally just work from version control.  If the laptop disk crashes
> then I rebuild a new disk and restore the data, either by checkout or
> by restore from backup.
> 
> Thanks for the input.

You're welcome.  I aim to please.

-- 
CCD CopyWrite Chad Perrin [ http://ccd.apotheon.org ]
Leon Festinger: "A man with a conviction is a hard man to change. Tell
him you disagree and he turns away. Show him facts and figures and he
questions your sources. Appeal to logic and he fails to see your point."